The use of plant oils for transportation fuel has been known for over 100 years with the use of peanut oil to power the first diesel engines. However, plant oil properties, as well as animal oil properties, are not sufficient to be a direct replacement for petroleum diesel in the diesel engines of today. The oils' viscosities are too high and do not burn clean enough, leaving damaging carbon deposits on the engine. As a result, transesterification and esterification of plant oils have been used to produce a less viscous fuel referred to as biodiesel fuel.
Significant improvements have been made over the years to the transesterification and esterification processes. However, enhancements and improvements to increase yield and reduce reaction time over existing biodiesel transesterification and esterification techniques are desired.